I Grew Up With Lee Kuan Yew

I grew up with Lee Kuan Yew. My dad always made his priority to be in tune with Singapore politics and the ongoing witty repartee between JB Jeyaratnam and LKY always tickled his fancy. In my home we knew who LKY was and what he had done and what he was doing. My dad always made sure the only channel on at news time was the channel with the news. We saw LKY and his ministers on our black and white TV but ignored them. We were kids so what did we care. My dad would mutter things under his breath and sometimes out loud whenever something important was announced by the newscaster. Perhaps Duncan Watt. My father also enjoyed our tit-for-tat exchanges with Malaysia aka Mahatir. 

This was the 80s, when the Singapore dollar was gaining strength against the Malaysian ringgit. I remember notices on SBS buses reminding passengers not to use Malaysian coins anymore. I was in primary school. Singapore politics was as important to me then as learning to make chappatis. (I still can't make chappatis.) And LKY was Prime Minister and that was all that mattered. I was very proud of my little country. I was fascinated by how the economy had grown, that people moved from kampongs to flats, we had a spanking new airport (My dad brought my sister and I to the opening day of Changi Aiport, 1 July 1981. I remember the falling water columns and the crowd.) and many tall buildings in the city. And double decker buses. And that the MRT was coming. Oh boy trains! We were poor, and the affluence around me was astounding and impressive. To be hankered after. 

I can't really recall much about LKY and Singapore politics in teenage years. I know LKY left his role as PM in 1990 and Goh Chok Tong took over. (There was this disturbing picture of GCT and some ministers in their swimming trunks on the Straits Times front page. Shudder.)

I guess the other key thing that stood out to me from a young age while in LKY's rule was that he sued many people and publications. He always won. 

It was in JC when my mind was opened to the possibility that the politics in my country was special, and not necessarily the best for her people. Gasp! I blame GP, it did its job. When you're open to ideas and exposed to other schools of thought, policy and government, you start to better appreciate, comprehend and question your own status quo. Then came National Service, the true melting pot of all and sundry, from all walks of life, every man from the brave to the depraved. I could not blame LKY for NS because I knew Singapore needed conscripted men to ensure its freedom would not never be at stake. At the same time, I knew people who hated NS and by extension LKY. They felt NS was a waste of time, a quantifiable loss in the prime of their lives, an unworthy taxation on time and talent. I just went on with it, hoping to finish my time unscathed (everyone comes out scarred, in one way or another). 

University was a time for ideas, and more thought about my country and where it was heading. There was localised politics, voting for committee leadership in clubs and halls of residence. It was silly and inconsequential, though I know some ambitious types took it very seriously. I learned then what it meant to have power. I remember hall presidents making bold statements and acting like their lives depended on the permeable hearts and minds of their residents. They planned actions and words carefully so as to achieve a desired outcome, or at least the perception of a successful conclusion. I was impressed. I also came to understand how political office could shape one's character, for better and worse. More importantly, I came to associate power with money, that he who has one without the other is handicapped like a rich prince in waiting - stuck in a tunnel vision of ambition but constantly bugged by those who want to leech along for the ride. He who has both is king. (In Singapore, there are many kings it seems.)

Am I jaded by the political system LKY spawned? Perhaps. Maybe because I see the government's hand in everything. The whole country was the result of something truly planned, completely inorganic. Many are thankful for the peace, stability and affluence that LKY's vision manifested into. I am also. There is no place on the planet like Singapore. The problem perhaps is that the hand in everything has taken away for the need for the people to step up. The reliance on the government to solve our problems has created a creative vacuum, and a debilitating apathy toward proactivity. We merely complain when things go wrong, gripe and moan at the slightest inconvenience. In the era when little went wrong, we hardly questioned the leaders that be, because there was no reason to. Also due to a fear perhaps instilled in us by LKY. We owed him so much - the success of this island, its regional and international standing, our rapid ascent into the First World - that we dared not bite the hand the fed us. That was the generation that grew up in the 60s and 70s, the ones who saw, felt and enjoyed the most change. They were submissive and obliging. They saw how those who even slightly smelled of dissent were dealt with. Zeus was liberal with the lightning bolts from Mount Olympus. There seemed to be just one way, his way. Those who grew up in the 80s and 90s were surrounded by the prosperity the LKY way wrought. These youngsters had less to be thankful for in a way, as recipients of their parents' hard work and perseverance. Lower marginal utility I suppose. Not surprisingly, it is their voice which is now heard loud as it calls for change in the way our government thinks and acts, a generation demanding more, appreciating less - a scenario unfamiliar in the times of LKY's reign. 

Every beginning has an end - a fade into white. Lee Kuan Yew thrust himself into the political scene to make change, way back in 1954, a time of much tension, some turmoil and a little upheaval. He persuaded his followers to support the merger with Malaysia, saying we could not survive as a small island alone, then to take steps to forge nationhood when Malaysia no longer wanted this troublesome little tip of the peninsula. He had a plan and a team of similarly motivated politicians who wanted to see this little red dot glow red hot. Every man, woman and child regardless of colour, language or belief, united in making things better with action, ambition and energy. And it worked. LKY's magnum opus is the ground I walk on. Last week, he passed away at the age of 91. So we begin again? No, we have always been challenging ourselves to be better. The storms and winds may be very different from the weather in 1965 but our foundations today are stronger, built upon the blood and character of many good men and women. What's not new is that we know we can make it, because we know have to. LKY has shown us how. It is the indefatigable Singapore spirit coursing through the veins of a still young nation that will lead us. There will be compromises to make, there must be open-minded consensus to underscore our actions. Every end has a beginning - a spear of red. Majulah Singapura.